TY - JOUR A1 - Bersalli, Germán A1 - Tröndle, Tim A1 - Heckmann, Leon A1 - Lilliestam, Johan T1 - Economic crises as critical junctures for policy and structural changes towards decarbonization BT - the cases of Spain and Germany JF - Climate policy N2 - Crises may act as tipping points for decarbonization pathways by triggering structural economic change or offering windows of opportunity for policy change. We investigate both types of effects of the global financial and COVID-19 crises on decarbonization in Spain and Germany through a quantitative Kaya-decomposition analysis of CO2 emissions and through a qualitative review of climate and energy policy changes. We show that the global financial crisis resulted in a critical juncture for Spanish CO2 emissions due to the combined effects of the deep economic recession and crisis-induced structural change, resulting in reductions in carbon and energy intensities and shifts in the economic structure. However, the crisis also resulted in a rollback of renewable energy policy, halting progress in the transition to green electricity. The impacts were less pronounced in Germany, where pre-existing decarbonization and policy trends continued after the crisis. Recovery packages had modest effects, primarily due to their temporary nature and the limited share of climate-related spending. The direct short-term impacts of the COVID-19 crisis on CO2 emissions were more substantial in Spain than in Germany. The policy responses in both countries sought to align short-term economic recovery with the long-term climate change goals of decarbonization, but it is too soon to observe their lasting effects. Our findings show that crises can affect structural change and support decarbonization but suggest that such effects depend on pre-existing trends, the severity of the crisis and political manoeuvring during the crisis. KW - COVID-19 KW - climate policy KW - decarbonization KW - structural change KW - economic crisis KW - green recovery Y1 - 2024 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1080/14693062.2024.2301750 SN - 1469-3062 SN - 1752-7457 VL - 24 IS - 3 SP - 410 EP - 427 PB - Taylor & Francis CY - London ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Lilliestam, Johan A1 - Patt, Anthony A1 - Bersalli, German T1 - The effect of carbon pricing on technological change for full energy decarbonization BT - a review of empirical ex-post evidence JF - Wiley interdisciplinary reviews : Climate change N2 - In order to achieve the temperature goals of the Paris Agreement, the world must reach net-zero carbon emissions around mid-century, which calls for an entirely new energy system. Carbon pricing, in the shape of taxes or emissions trading schemes, is often seen as the main, or only, necessary climate policy instrument, based on theoretical expectations that this would promote innovation and diffusion of the new technologies necessary for full decarbonization. Here, we review the empirical knowledge available in academic ex-post analyses of the effectiveness of existing, comparatively high-price carbon pricing schemes in the European Union, New Zealand, British Columbia, and the Nordic countries. Some articles find short-term operational effects, especially fuel switching in existing assets, but no article finds mentionable effects on technological change. Critically, all articles examining the effects on zero-carbon investment found that existing carbon pricing scheme have had no effect at all. We conclude that the effectiveness of carbon pricing in stimulating innovation and zero-carbon investment remains a theoretical argument. So far, there is no empirical evidence of its effectiveness in promoting the technological change necessary for full decarbonization. This article is categorized under: Climate Economics > Economics of Mitigation KW - carbon pricing KW - climate policy KW - decarbonization KW - technological change Y1 - 2020 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1002/wcc.681 SN - 1757-7780 SN - 1757-7799 VL - 12 IS - 1 PB - Wiley CY - Hoboken ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Thonig, Richard A1 - Del Rio, Pablo A1 - Kiefer, Christoph A1 - Lazaro Touza, Lara A1 - Escribano, Gonzalo A1 - Lechon, Yolanda A1 - Spaeth, Leonhard A1 - Wolf, Ingo A1 - Lilliestam, Johan T1 - Does ideology influence the ambition level of climate and renewable energy policy? BT - Insights from four European countries JF - Energy sources, part B: economics, planning, and policy N2 - We investigate whether political ideology has an observable effect on decarbonization ambition, renewable power aims, and preferences for power system balancing technologies in four European countries. Based on the Energy Logics framework, we identify ideologically different transition strategies (state-centered, market-centered, grassroots-centered) contained in government policies and opposition party programs valid in 2019. We compare these policies and programs with citizen poll data. We find that ideology has a small effect: governments and political parties across the spectrum have similar, and relatively ambitious, decarbonization and renewables targets. This mirrors citizens' strong support for ambitious action regardless of their ideological self-description. However, whereas political positions on phasing out fossil fuel power are clear across the policy space, positions on phasing in new flexibility options to balance intermittent renewables are vague or non-existent. As parties and citizens agree on strong climate and renewable power aims, the policy ambition is likely to remain high, even if governments change. KW - political ideology KW - climate policy KW - energy policy KW - europe KW - european KW - Union KW - renewable energy KW - flexibility Y1 - 2020 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1080/15567249.2020.1811806 SN - 1556-7249 SN - 1556-7257 VL - 16 IS - 1 SP - 4 EP - 22 PB - Taylor & Francis Group CY - Philadelphia ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Ollier, Lana A1 - Melliger, Marc André A1 - Lilliestam, Johan T1 - Friends or foes? BT - Political synergy or competition between renewable energy and energy efficiency policy JF - Energies : open-access journal of related scientific research, technology development and studies in policy and management N2 - Energy efficiency measures and the deployment of renewable energy are commonly presented as two sides of the same coin-as necessary and synergistic measures to decarbonize energy systems and reach the temperature goals of the Paris Agreement. Here, we quantitatively investigate the policies and performances of the EU Member States to see whether renewables and energy efficiency policies are politically synergistic or if they rather compete for political attention and resources. We find that Member States, especially the ones perceived as climate leaders, tend to prioritize renewables over energy efficiency in target setting. Further, almost every country performs well in either renewable energy or energy efficiency, but rarely performs well in both. We find no support for the assertion that the policies are synergistic, but some evidence that they compete. However, multi-linear regression models for performance show that performance, especially in energy efficiency, is also strongly associated with general economic growth cycles, and not only efficiency policy as such. We conclude that renewable energy and energy efficiency are not synergistic policies, and that there is some competition between them. KW - energy efficiency KW - renewable energy KW - climate policy KW - policy cycle KW - EU KW - policy competition Y1 - 2020 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3390/en13236339 SN - 1996-1073 VL - 13 IS - 23 PB - MDPI CY - Basel ER -